Perhaps we know them best as the producers of Heineken beer, tulips, and cocoa, but the Dutch are exporting something far better to us in New Orleans. It’s their knowledge of how to create a water management system that will make our city both beautiful and safe.
They should know. Holland was terribly flooded in 1953, and their government responded with an ambitious water defense plan. Their system consists of a highly technical approach to managing water while preserving its beauty. They have learned to live with water by investing in draining it above ground, thereby creating open canals bordered by beautiful green space. We, on the other hand, have gone to great expense to hide our water behind ugly concrete walls. Just think of the Orleans and New London canals.
Luckily for us, the Dutch are now generously sharing their vision of how New Orleans could look a lot more like Amsterdam through the Dutch Dialogues, a series of design workshops between Dutch and U.S. engineers, architects, urban planners, and government officials. At a recent public forum, they dared us to imagine portions of the city connected by canals with bridges alongside pedestrian and cycle paths.
There is a great Dutch saying: alle neuzen het zelfde kant op— all noses in the same direction. If we, like them, can align our noses in the same direction, we can imagine a city like Amsterdam, where our greatest fears—water, flooding—become our proudest assets. Visit the Dutch Dialogues website and you will quickly understand how we can have both safety and beauty living with water if as a community we put our noses in the same direction.
Contributed by Penny Montblanc
